"Rip Van Winkle" is undoubtedly Washington Irving's chef-d'œuvre, and this story of a
man who falls asleep for twenty years seems to escape the law of time, as it haunts us still with
its mystery. Once the reader realizes that Rip sleeps precisely through the American Revolution,
the story begins to bristle with cultural overlaps and cultural conflicts occur between what was
and what is. Through the vivid picture of Rip Van Winkle, an image of the American colonies
under the rule of Royal England can be seen. By successfully using the method of character
description and psychological analysis, the image of England that Rip character symbolizes
stands out among many other symbols.
Romantic writers have a tendency to incorporate nature as a key factor into their writings.
To Irving, the Kaatskill Mountains have always the pride of American people from the days of
past to the present. At the outset of his story, Washington Irving uses personification to invest
the Kaatskill Mountains with human qualities. The Kaatskill unveils itself as a firm territorial
protector of the village with its “noble height”. Deliberately making the mountains come alive
enables them to become mysterious and unpredictable. In fact, they may even play tricks on
those who venture within its confines. There’s no surprise that those visual characteristics
contribute themselves as a symbol for a safe, undisturbed, and eternal life of Americans before
they suffer the domination of Great Britain.
Irving expressed the kindness of Rip Van Winkle as he was such universal popularity
and he was the great favorite of the village. Every single man and woman in town was fond of
him since he would help anyone who sought his help. His ...
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...then could he have immediately known that
they were gone in the first place? By showing the reader the very sight of what Rip Van Winkle
may have seen, the reader learns of his surroundings, which gives the reader an understanding
of how it all has changed after he wakes up. People are wearing clothes "of a different fashion
from that to which he was accustomed." Even the "village was altered; it was larger and more
populous. There were rows of houses which he had never seen before." This is a symbol of
America's growth and prosperity after the Revolution.
Through the vivid picture of Rip Van Winkle, an image of the American colonies under
the rule of Royal England can be seen. By successfully using the method of character description
and psychological analysis, the image of England that Rip character symbolizes stands out
among many other symbols.
spacious rooms and around the grounds of the home he loved, appearing only when crowds of
Have you ever imagined being asleep in the forest for twenty years, coming back home and not knowing what has gone on all those years of your absence? Rip Van Winkle went through that, and had to come back home and face some real changes. The author Washington Irving has some interesting characters whom he puts in his short stories. Irving puts some characters in his short stories to reflect on some of his life. For example, Irving has similarities between Rip Van Winkle being asleep in the forest 20 years and Irving was in Europe for seventeen writing short stories and being the governor’s aid and military secretary. These two situations are similar, because they both didn’t know what they were going to come back too and were gone for such a long period of time. Irving does put some of his own life into his short stories and with a reason for his self-reflective works.
In Washington Irving’s work “Rip Van Winkle,” Irving demonstrates all characteristics of an American Mythology rather humorously. These characteristics affect the story attracting the attention of readers and impacting the reader’s experience of the story by relishing America’s unique attributes and values. In “Rip Van Winkle,” Irving incorporates attributes of American Mythology by setting the story in exciting pastimes, filling the story with strange and exaggerated characters, and featuring magical mysterious events.
The first way being, that the main characters go on dark journeys and return with new attitudes. In "Rip Van Winkle" the character comes back and the people in the village are much more different than when he left. For example, his wife has died, and most of his kids are gone. " 'Ah, poor man, Rip Van Winkle was his name, but it 's twenty years since he went away from home with his gun, and never has been heard of since -- his dog came home without him; but whether he shot himself, or was carried away by the Indians, nobody can tell. I was then but a little girl. ' Rip had but one question more to ask; but he put it with a faltering voice: 'Where 's your mother? ' 'Oh she too had died but a short time since; she broke a blood-vessel in a fit of passion at a New-England peddler '" (Irving ). Rip Van Winkle had come back to village expecting things to be the same as when he left. But little did he know, that he had been gone much longer than he
Washington Irving wrote Rip Van Winkle with the American people in mind. At this time society was changing drastically. America was attempting to go through a struggle with forming their own identity. America was wanting to have an identity that would set them free from English culture and rule. Irving uses his main character, Rip Van Winkle, to symbolize America. Rip goes through the same struggles that America was going through at this time before and after the Revolution. Irving uses such great symbolism in this story to describe the changes that American society went through. This story covers a wide variety of time periods including: America before English rule, early American colonies under English rule, and America after the Revolutionary War.
In “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving he writes about a simple man, Rip Van Winkle, who does just enough to get by in life. He lives in a village by the catskill mountains, and is loved by everyone in the village. He is an easy going man, who spends most of his days at the village inn talking with his neighbors, fishing all day, and wandering the mountains with his dog to refuge from his wife the thorn on his side. On one of his trips to the mountains Rip Van Winkle stumbles upon a group of men who offer him a drink, and that drink changes everything for Van Winkle. He later wakes up, twenty years later, and returns to his village were he notices nothing is the same from when he left. He learns that King George III is no longer in charge,
Irving uses many other images and scenes within this story that could be delved into further. However, I believe these three main points, along with the knowledge of the political climate of the times, shows Irving’s genius in representing both sides of the political gamut. Irving was able to cater to both the British and the Colonist without offending either side. Irving’s genius was that even though this was an allegory of its time, its elements could represent either or both sides of the conflict during the Revolution. This dual representation in an allegorical story ensured his success, in both countries as a writer. It allowed Irving to make a political statement without taking sides.
In Rip Van Winkle, Irving shows his doubts in the American Identity and the American dream. After the Revolutionary war, America was trying to develop its own course. They were free to govern their own course of development; however, some of them had an air of uncertainties on their own identity in this new country. Irving was born among this generation in the newly created United States of America, and also felt uncertainty about the American identity. Irving might be the writer that is the least positive about being an American. The main reason for this uncertainty is the new born American has no history and tradition while the Europe has a great one accumulated for thousands of years. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, Irving borrows an old European tale to make it take place in America. This tale related to the Dutch colonists haunts the kaatskill mountains. In order to highlight the American identity, Irving praises the “majestic” mountains which Europe lacks. He describes the mountains that “their summits…will glow and light up like a crown of glory” Nevertheless, the use of these ancient explorers into Rip Van Winkle only to show that although American has formed its own identity, no one can cut its connection with Europe. No wonder when America was still under tyranny of the British rule, some people still cannot cut the blood relationship with Europe. Therefore, the American identity is blurred by their relationship with Europe since then.
Van Winkle" depicts a story of a man longing to be free, and of the transformation that occurs to him and the
The story of Rip van Winkle is a popular folktale of the United States. Its general motif is the magical passing of many years in what seems only a few days. Japan’s popular version of this story is Urashima Taro. In addition to the common motif, the personality of the main characters, Rip van Winkle and Urashima Taro, and plot structures are similar as well.
Washington Irving presents two of the chosen short stories, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”, by saying they are works of a Diedrich Knickerbocker. The reason he published the stories under that name came from the fact that his brothers were all in the study of law. Irving tried that career out for a while, but the he quickly grew bored. He told his brothers that he wanted to find a different career. When he started writing, he grew embarrassed and decided to change his name in printing.
"God knows,--[God is the only person at this time who knows what/who Rip is. Rip doesn't know, his son doesn't know, nobody knows except God himself]--" exclaimed he, at his wit's end; "I'm not myself-I'm somebody else-that's me yonder-no-that's somebody else, got into my shoes--[He sees that he has passed along his traits to his son, and his son has taken over Rip's identity and habits. We "grow" into other's shoes]-- -I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and they've changed my gun, and every thing's changed, and I'...
Both Rip Van Winkle and the nature that will always surround him are the only two things that had the ability to prevail through insurmountable changes over this span of twenty years. They are mutually described with distinguished reverence upon the onset of the story, and continue this ideal throughout, thus making Rip more than the average protagonist. The story concludes with a tone of contentment in that the village people are happy to have Rip back, and more importantly Rip feels at home once again, amid the people and setting that are meant just for him.
When the first American settlement on Roanoke Island was established in 1585 it’s primary force, Sir Walter Raleigh, had no idea that this “New World” would evolve into one of the most powerful voices in the modern world. But before it developed it would have to shaped by it’s founders from the Western world. Two of the largest voices in America’s early development are John Smith, who with a group of English merchants, hoped to get rich in this new land, and William Bradford, a puritan farmer who was one of the most influential men involved with the Mayflower compact. In their two pieces they both convey America as a place to escape but fail to reach many other similar conclusions on what America was like at this time.
To this point, Rip Van Winkle has had only to deal with the change in his surroundings. Having no doubts about his personal character, his fears remain singular only briefly, for when the crowd points to a man whom they call Rip Van Winkle, he begins to question his being as well. "I'm not myself-I'm somebody else-that's me yonder-no-that's somebody else, got into my shoes..."